Happy   reading,

Diane

P.S.    Please share your thoughts about this email or send future topic ideas to diane@dianeamundson.com

 ”Professionalism is not about adherence to the policies of a bureaucracy. Professionalism is about having the integrity, honesty, and sincere regard for the personhood of the customer, in the context of always doing what is best for the business. Those two things do not need to be in conflict.”

Eric   Lippert

Bob was continually late for appointments that he set with co-workers in his department. Brenda was busy selling cosmetics on the phone, her side-line business, while working for someone else. Brian routinely talked about his poor performing subordinates with his high performing subordinates making everyone uncomfortable. Carrie was known as someone who would not take full responsibility for mistakes she made. She would find a way to make someone else the reason for a failure in her area. Nancy would quickly invite the new hires to lunch so they would join her clique that gossips about the other cliques at work. If any of these sound like you, or someone you know at work, this is the time to put a stop to these unprofessional behaviors that are impacting how others see you.

We often hear the phrase “be professional” when referring to a way of   acting at work. But what does it really mean? According to businessdictionary.com being a professional means showing a level of excellence or competence that is expected of a professional.   I thought I would create a list of five ways to know you are unprofessional:

• When you steal time or materials from the company, i.e., using social media, long personal phone calls, borrowing tools, etc.
• When you promote another business of yours while working for someone else
• When you bad mouth fellow workers or your boss in front of customers
• As a boss, you talk about subordinate’s faults with other subordinates
• When you use your company’s computer, fax, etc. to look for another job

So, what does professional behavior look like?

• Showing up on time- be available when you say you will be available
• Being competent which means being accurate and doing what you say you will do….even when you don’t feel like it
• Dressing for the importance of your job so as to gain credibility- if you would wear it to a carnival, don’t wear it to work, i.e., flip flops, cutoff jeans, spaghetti strap tops, t-shirts, sandals, etc.
• Keeping confidential matters confidential
• Taking responsibility for failures if you own them….don’t pass the blame

A client of mine who owns a company mentioned that he would like his employees to think like an owner. If they owned his company, would they still choose these unprofessional behaviors? Now there will always be    exceptions, but I bet a few unprofessional employees, if given ownership, would think and act differently.

Question for You:

Do you find yourself acting with more of the unprofessional   behaviors listed above? Do you notice your co-workers or even boss   exhibiting more of these unprofessional behaviors?

Action for You:

Immediately stop the unprofessional behaviors as they impact how others see you and these behaviors may get you terminated. Begin finding friends and co-workers at work that exemplify the do’s of being a professional. Stop and ask yourself what you would do differently if you owned the company. Often we get swept up in a culture that lives and breathes unprofessionalism. It takes a strong person to remove themselves from people who support unprofessional behaviors.

“Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.’”

Julius Irving